Tag Archives: johnny cash

Wicked collection of vintage mugshots of musicians over at Flavorwire. The one of Frank Sinatra is, quite frankly, scary, and I wonder if the Johnny Cash one is from when he got caught smuggling pills inside his guitar. Bowie, as you’d expect, looks cool as a cucumber and completely unruffled. Note also how many of them look like they’ve been taken on Hipstamatic…

Axl Rose, 1980

David Bowie, 1976

Elvis Presley, 1976

Frank Sinatra, 1938

Janis Joplin, 1969

Jim Morrison, 1970 (got into trouble on my birthday)

Jimi Hendrix, 1969

Johnny Cash, 1965

Ozzy Osbourne, 1984 (wicked sweatshirt)

Steve Tyler, 1967 (I once did a wee next to him. That makes us practically related)

I heard the Nick Lowe version first, so I always kind of instinctively hum that, but Mister Cash – who was Lowe’s father-in-law – SMASHES it every time. Lowe’s version was, if I remember rightly, in the first issue of The Sopranos. I’m not going to go into the meaning of it, everyone’s is different. I do particularly like the enjambement in the lyrics – works really well at this pace.

The beast in me
Is caged by frail and fragile bars
Restless by day
And by night rants and rages at the stars
God help the beast in me

The beast in me
Has had to learn to live with pain
And how to shelter from the rain
And in the twinkling of an eye
Might have to be restrained
God help the beast in me

Sometimes it tries to kid me
That it’s just a teddy bear
And even somehow manage to vanish in the air
And that is when I must beware
Of the beast in me that everybody knows
They’ve seen him out dressed in my clothes
Patently unclear It it’s New York or New Year
God help the beast in me